142 



SGIENGF.. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 56. 



a water-tight wicker bowl with many cere- 

 monial observances. The bowl is passed around 

 sunwise and everybody helps himself with his 

 fingers to four morsels. But before the men 

 partake, the gods are fed — a morsel of gruel is 

 laid on the mouth of each mask. After the 

 gruel is finished all partake of pollen. 



About midnight the ceremony of waking the 

 gods begins. Although the Navahoes do not use 

 time-pieces, this act occurs always almost ex- 

 actly at midnight. The shaman sings a long 

 song, the burden of which is Hyidezmi (he stirs, 

 he moves); a diflerent god is mentioned in each 

 stanza. When the singer mentions the name 

 of a god he lifts the appropriate mask and 

 shakes it in tune to the song. The last prayer 

 occurs after dawn, the vigil ends, and the lodge 

 is prepared for the work of the fifth day. 



The paper closed by giving the reasons for 

 certain Navaho symbolisms, especially that 

 which assigns the north to the male and the 

 south to the female. 



The closing paper on Racial Anatomical Pecu- 

 liarities was read by De. D. K. Shute. 



George R. Stetson, 

 Recording Secretary. 



new YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



In the absence of the President the meeting 

 was called to order by Prof. R. S. Wood- 

 ward. The minutes were read and approved 

 and Dr. Franz Boas, of the American Museum 

 of Natural History was elected resident mem- 

 ber. Twenty-six members and guests were 

 present. Prof. M. I. Pupin then read before 

 the Section of Astronomy and Physics a paper 

 on the Magnetic circuit. In transformers, 

 especially of closed iron core, it has long been 

 known that the upper ' harmonics ' of the fun- 

 damental rate of alternations present in the pri- 

 mary are choked out by the transformer leav- 

 ing the potential difference of the secondary 

 coil represented by a simple sine curve. The 

 choking out is less if the magnetic circuit is 

 incomplete, and least when the coils have no 

 magnetic core. Various explanations have 

 been offered to account for this phenomenon; 

 it is doubtless true that it is due to Foucault 

 currents and to hysteresis. Dr. Pupin pointed 

 out from certain mathematical considerations 



that by appropriate measurements, especially 

 of the angle of lag, it would be possible to sep- 

 arate the energy consumed in Foucault cur- 

 rents from that consumed by hysteresis, and 

 thus be able to study this latter puzzling phe- 

 nomenon. Investigations are in progress to 

 test the method experimentally. Prof Crocker 

 remarked upon the interest and importance of 

 the questions involved. 



The second paper was by Dr. A. A. Julien 

 upon ' The condensed gas film on the surface of 

 solid bodies with relation to (1) Newton's rings 

 of the first order ; (2) sand flotation ; (3) sand 

 in harmonic vibration. 



Owing to the lateness of the hour Dr. Julien 

 passed over the first two heads, giving an out- 

 line of the literature of the question of liquid 

 films on solids. He then outlined his experi- 

 ments in sonorizing sands artificially, and dem- 

 onstrating the necessity of an antecedent water 

 film before the sand becomes sonorous. It must 

 also be of approximately uniform size of grain. 

 The paper was discussed by Profs. Mayer, Van 

 Nardroft', Pupin and Hallock. At 10:30 the 

 meeting adjourned. W. Hallock, 



Secretary of Section. 



C4E0L0GICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI- 

 VERSITY, DECEMBER 37, 1895. 



The Geology of the Woonsocket Basin. (Prelimi- 

 nary Report.) By F. C. Schrader. 

 The basin consists of a local widening in the 

 normally trenchant' valley of the Blackstone 

 River where the river traverses a narrow belt 

 of soft rocks. The outline of the basin is 

 roughly that of the cross-section of a plano- 

 convex lens, whose straight edge, representing 

 the southeast side of the basin, extends from 

 Primrose, south of Woonsocket Hill, in Rhode 

 Island, ten miles northeastward to South Bel- 

 lingham, in Massachusetts. The convex edge 

 includes near its middle point Blackstone village 

 on the northwest, whence the Blackstone river, 

 like a vertical let fall to the opposite side just 

 below the city of Woonsocket, bisects the basin, 

 whose width is here about three miles. 



The rocks in the basin are eroded to a depth 

 of two hundred or more feet below the upland or 

 old baselevel of the surrounding country. Some 

 bed-rock hills are, however, still prominent 



